The "Communist Program" and
"Not Really Communist"
(December 5, 1925)

In general, the counterrevolutionary parties refer to the national revolution as the
Communist revolution, the Guomindang as the Communist Party, the national
government as the Communist government, and the National Revolutionary
Army as the Communist army. All of this is nothing but following the suggestions of the imperialists by concocting a few simple epithets and spreading them
around with the intention of smashing the united front of cooperation among
various classes in the national revolution. But such creations as these can only be
rather abstract. They cannot be too concrete, for if they are too concrete, it will
be easy for their authors to expose their nakedness so that people will not believe
them. And yet, on this occasion, staking everything on a single throw, and
having already exhausted every conceivable method, Chen Jiongming in the East
River area recently fabricated a so-called "Communist Program" to scare the
people. Among their propaganda leaflets there is one of which the title reads "An
Exhortation to the people of Guangdong to help the Guangdong Army Subdue
the Red Party." In the text, it is stated: "Alas! Elders and brethren, do you know
of the Communist Program drafted by Jiang Zhongzheng?¹ From my insignificant position, I am concerned lest the people in their ignorance imagine that the
Communists will share out only the property of the wealthy, and will not bother
ordinary poor people. They even think that the Communists will benefit the poor

This text appeared in Zhengzhi zhoubao, No. 1, December 5, 1925. Our source is Mao
Zedong ji, vol. 1, p. 123-24.
1. Jiang Jieshi (1887-1975), here called by his school name Zhongzheng, is (with Sun
Yatsen) one of two persons referred to in these volumes by the Cantonese form of his
name, in the spelling long used in the West, Chiang Kaishek. A native of Zhejiang, Chiang
Kaishek received military training in Japan, where he joined the Tongmenghui in
1908. Though he was in frequent contact with Sun Yatsen from 1910 onward, the turning
point in their relationship occurred in 1922 when he rallied to Sun after Chen Jiongming
had turned against him. In 1923, Chiang became chief of staff in Sun's headquarters in
Guangzhou and was chosen by Sun to head a special mission to Moscow to obtain arms.
In April 1924, he became commandant of the Huangpu Military Academy. In early 1925,
Chiang led the victorious Eastern Expedition against Chen Jiongming, and in the summer
of 1925 he became commander of the First Army of the newly established National
Revolutionary Army. By the time Mao wrote this article, Chiang was, with Wang Jingwei,
one of the two top Guomindang leaders in Guangzhou.

people. Don't they know that this is a big lie? I would summarize their program
generally as follows: There is the so-called 3-3-3-1 system, which pertains to
productive lands. There is the so-called 4-4-2 system, which refers to houses
and buildings. As for factories and commercial establishments with a moderate
amount of capital, everything will be confiscated." But recently the Hong Kong
Industrial and Commercial Daily reported: "When the representatives of the
Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce arrived in Hong Kong, the representatives of
the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce invited the representatives of the
Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce to the Chinese Merchants' Club for a second
conference to discuss solving the strikes and restoring communications. Chinese
gentry and merchants sat around a long table with the representatives of the
Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce. The representative of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, Jian Qinshi, began by saying that the Guangzhou government
was not really carrying out Communism." If someone should ask Chen Jiongming about this statement of Jian Qinshi, I expect that Chen Jiongming would have
to reply: "Jian Qinshi is himself lying. Others have communized his property and
he still says that it hasn't been communized."